Marte, Community Leaders Decry Updated Plan for New Jail
The Adams administration released updated sketches for its new Manhattan Detention Complex (MDC) on Friday, and disclosed new details about the project’s budget and timeline, which have now swelled to $3.7 billion and stretched to 2032. The original projections were a $1.7-billion budget and an opening date of 2027.
City Council member Christopher Marte (right), who has long opposed the plan, said, “this goes against even the initial [Borough Based Jail] proposal that was voted on by the previous Council. It was just three years ago that Eric Adams stood with the community and said there will be no mega-jail in Chinatown. This skyscraper jail is yet another broken promise from the Mayor.”
This was a reference to a 2021 promise made by then-candidate Eric Adams, who attended a community rally against the plan that autumn, and said, “I know how much this community has endured. Let’s stop the institutionalization of hate that we are seeing in government. We can do a better job. The problems we are facing can’t be solved with incarceration and the destruction of communities. So I am here with you, standing side by side. No new jail! No building up a jail at this location!”
Soon after taking office, however, Mr. Adams changed course, with a City Hall spokesman telling the Broadsheet in 2023, “this administration will always follow the law, and the law says the jails on Rikers Island must close on time. To follow the law and protect the safety of the community and all involved in this project, this work is proceeding. We have engaged deeply with the community every step of the way, and we are committed to continuing to work with them to limit the disruption of this project.”
For years, controversy has dogged the plan to demolish the previous MDC, which opened in 1990 at 125 White Street, and erect a much larger jail in its place, as part of a broader project to close the City’s centralized detention facility on Rikers Island and replace it with four borough-based jails (one in each borough except Staten Island). This plan became a fait accompli in the closing weeks of 2024, when demolition of the White Street structure was completed.
Notwithstanding City Hall’s determination to comply with the law, the Adams administration has repeatedly acknowledged that it will not make the legally required 2027 deadline for closing Rikers Island, which has been plagued by allegations of brutality, corruption, and other misconduct for decades.
“This is not what our City needs and I will continue to advocate to have this space become affordable housing or a much-needed Downtown hospital, especially with the planned closure of Mount Sinai Beth Israel,” Mr. Marte said.
Neighbors United Below Canal, a community group based in Chinatown that is opposed to plans for a new MDC, said in statement, “the Chinatown community is shocked and deeply disappointed by the New York City Department of Design and Construction’s [DDC’s] recent decision to unveil design plans for the proposed Manhattan Borough Based Jail to local media without first consulting the community that will be most impacted. This move comes despite years of our community’s and elected officials’ efforts to engage with DDC and other City agencies in good faith and ensure that Chinatown residents’ and small businesses’ concerns are addressed transparently and represented in the decision-making process.”
“We have tirelessly called for a seat at the decision-making table on this project,” the NUBC statement continues, “which, in its current form, threatens to have long-lasting and damaging effects on our community. The DDC’s decision to bypass meaningful engagement with Chinatown residents and our elected representatives demonstrates a continued blatant disregard for the unique needs of the community and undermines the trust we have sought to build.”